Knicks Fly to London With Carmelo Anthony in the News

By TIM ROHAN

January 14, 2013

GREENBURGH, N.Y. — The Knicks practiced into the night Monday, went through an air travel security checkpoint at their practice facility, then jetted for London, their franchise cornerstone, Carmelo Anthony, all but spirited out of the country under a mysterious veil.

The Knicks will play the Detroit Pistons on Thursday in London in what will presumably be the first regular-season game in a couple of weeks in which Anthony will take the court feeling fully nourished. And because the game is being played overseas, there is little or no chance that the Knicks’ enigmatic owner, James L. Dolan, will have Madison Square Garden employees aim microphones at the court to pick up every in-game conversation in which Anthony is involved, as Dolan is alleged to have done in last Friday’s game at the Garden against the Chicago Bulls.

The disclosure that Anthony had engaged in a restricted diet for 15 days — no meat or carbohydrates — came from the player himself after Sunday afternoon’s victory at home over the New Orleans Hornets. Anthony said he had undertaken the diet “to get some clarity in my life” but was abandoning it because it had left him feeling “de-energized.”

The disclosure that Dolan had instructed two audio technicians to stand at opposite ends of the court to record everything said to and by Anthony during Friday’s game came in The Star-Ledger of Newark, which did not cite any sources.

Anthony had left the locker room on Sunday vowing to find a big steak, his modified fast at an end. But he was not available Monday to add insight into why he followed an eating plan that made him wonder “how I was out there competing at a high level,” or to offer his reaction to the notion that Dolan had been eavesdropping on him.

The Knicks declined to comment on the Star-Ledger report.

That left Coach Mike Woodson to fill the void. He told reporters at Monday’s practice that he “got wind of” the restricted diet only when Anthony mentioned it Sunday, but said he was not concerned that his star player had not informed him during the past two weeks that he drastically changed his eating habits and that he was feeling some energy loss as a result.

“I don’t get into players and what they eat and don’t eat; I just expect them to be ready to go when it’s time to go,” Woodson said, adding: “He’s going to eat the right foods and do all of the necessary things to be ready to play basketball. I have that much faith in him.”

When Woodson was further prodded with questions about the issue, he grew annoyed and said: “It’s a big thing to you guys, but it’s not a big thing to me. I’d take Melo fasting or not fasting; it doesn’t matter to me.”

Carmelo Anthony during Sunday’s game, after which he announced he was ending a restricted diet he had been on for 15 days.

Kathy Willens / Associated Press

Knicks fans, of course, may disagree. During the period in which he said he was on a diet, Anthony played sluggishly in first quarters — shooting 30.8 percent then, compared with 53.5 percent previously. That included Sunday’s game, in which he went 1 for 8 from the field in the first quarter.

In addition, the Knicks went 3-4 in that time, with Anthony missing one of the games because of a suspension stemming from his postgame confrontations with Boston’s Kevin Garnett a week ago Monday.

But if Woodson did not know what Anthony was up to, some of his teammates did. One was Steve Novak, who said he learned that Anthony was not eating in his normal fashion by dining with him.

“I guess if he can keep scoring 30, 40 points a night, he can fast all he wants,” Novak said.

As for the microphones, if they were indeed being aimed at Anthony on Friday night, the question is why? Anthony’s postgame confrontations with Garnett came after the veteran Celtics center and forward, a renowned N.B.A. trash-talker, clearly got under Anthony’s skin in a game in which he shot poorly and the Celtics won.

What Garnett actually said to rile Anthony remains unclear. Some published reports stated that Garnett had made remarks about Anthony’s wife. Days later, however, Celtics Coach Doc Rivers adamantly disputed that interpretation.

Anthony has declined to provide details. So perhaps Dolan wanted to listen in himself on the things being said to rile Anthony, particularly by a team like the Bulls, who had beaten the Knicks in a tough game late in December in which Anthony, Woodson and Tyson Chandler had been ejected.

Asked to comment on the situation, an N.B.A. spokesman noted that there was no prohibition against audio equipment in a league arena.

In any case, the Knicks will now spend the next few days in London, where Anthony spent part of last summer as a member of the United States Olympic basketball team. So he presumably knows where to go to find a good meal. Presumably, too, there will not be any microphones recording his dinner conversations.

REBOUNDS

Barring any setbacks in the next two days, Iman Shumpert will make his season debut Thursday for the Knicks. The game will be the only one in a week for the Knicks, which will be a welcome break for a team that is hobbled with injuries and is always mindful of the advanced age of many of its players.

Correction: January 15, 2013

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that a spokesman for the N.B.A. had spoken to league lawyers on Monday and that they did not believe the use of microphones to pick up on-court conversations was an invasion of privacy. In fact, the spokesman did not consult with league lawyers.